When Toronto police seized $2-million in marijuana recently from an east end industrial location licensed by Health Canada as a medical grower, the operation was found to be producing more than 2,000 plants – a dramatic variation from its licensed limit of fewer than 300.

The Leslieville grower was not alone.

This year, more than a quarter of 17 investigations by Toronto police into medical marijuana operations uncovered evidence of illegal activity. Still, police are hopeful that change is on the way. A slate of new federal regulations on medical marijuana starting to take effect within the next few months include a ban on homegrown marijuana and a corresponding shift to licensed commercial operators who must disclose their location to police, fire and city officials. The new rules will be fully implemented when the current program ends next March.

There are times when the actual license, or permit, is being used as a cover

“There are times when the actual license, or permit, is being used as a cover to conceal excess [marijuana], and the excess growth of plants is being diverted to the criminal use as opposed to the medical marijuana use,” said Staff-Insp. Randy Franks of the Toronto drug squad. He anticipates the new rules will expedite grow-up investigations and allow officers to be more actively involved with producers to ensure they are growing the drug safely.

While Staff-Insp. Franks was careful to avoid painting all medical marijuana producers with the brush, he noted: “It happens on a fairly regular basis that we see overages.”

Health Canada currently allows seriously ill residents who have the support of a medical doctor to possess marijuana for medical purposes. Those individuals can either hold a license to produce, have a designated grower, or purchase dried marijuana from Health Canada’s supply.

A decade ago, Health Canada authorized fewer than 500 people in Canada to possess medical marijuana. That number has since skyrocketed to more than 30,000. In Toronto, about 450 people hold personal-use production licenses, Health Canada says.

Under the current regulations, a person with a production license can be permitted to produce for a maximum of two individuals and the maximum number of production licenses at one site is four, said Health Canada in an e-mail to the National Post. Police say they have found growing licenses for large quantities of plants including at the Leslieville location, which was authorized to house nearly 300 plants.

“The amount of marijuana that can be grown and stored at any time depends on the daily amount that has been approved to the authorized person, and whether plants are grown indoors and/or outdoors,” the Health Canada website states.

Health Canada’s online chart indicates a licensed grower, producing indoors only and for someone with a prescription of five grams per day, can have up to 25 plants at a time.

There’s just no realistic way that anyone could smoke that much marijuana in one day

Insp. Franks said current licensing for plant production is still “all over the map.”

“We’ve seen some very unusual and high amounts of dried marijuana that’s been prescribed, and there’s just no realistic way that anyone could smoke that much marijuana in one day,” he said.

The bigger problem for police is a lack of transparency around the locations of licensed growers, as Health Canada does not release that information to police or city officials. Instead, when police receive tips from the public, they sometimes wind up investigating legal and above-board operations.

Exactly where production facilities would be located under the new scheme would depend on local zoning regulations, but early signs of controversy have already emerged in the Muskoka town of MacTier. Residents expressed outraged after learning of a proposal to convert their local community centre into a medical marijuana facility. Even NHL legend Bobby Orr, who spent his youth in the area, called the proposal “disgraceful” and “just not right” in a newspaper interview.

Paul Wiancko, city councillor with the Township of Georgian Bay, said that given the uproar, the city’s proposal to rent its community centre to a pot grower is essentially “dead.” He said he hopes a medical marijuana facility might go elsewhere in the municipality.

In Toronto, some prospective commercial growers are already trying to get community support.

“We think it’s really important to treat the community as a key stakeholder and to work with communities in which we operate,” said Rade Kovacevic, co-founder of Toronto-based MedCannAccess, a company seeking a license under the new regulations.

Mr. Kovacevic would not say where his operations would go. He said he has applied for a research and development license and will apply for the growing license when applications are available. If approved, he said, his product would become available to licensed Canadians through courier services such as Federal Express.

Though some see the new regulations as a positive step toward streamlining the system and treating medical marijuana like other pharmaceuticals, not everyone is convinced.

“They’re essentially forcing people to smoke it,” Mr. Greenblatt said. “It’s going to be hugely problematic and it’s a big hole in the regulations.”

The Health Canada website says cannabis extracts, oils and creams are not permitted due to their associated “unknown health risks.”

Neev Tapiero, who owns Cannabis As Living Medicine, a Toronto-based medical cannabis club not licensed by Health Canada, had mixed feelings on the new regulations. Outlawing homegrown operations, he said, could mean medical marijuana users have less access. They also worry that the price of marijuana will rise as the new, bigger producers struggle to comply with the new rules. The federal government has indicated prices, which currently range from about $1.80 to $5.00 per gram, could increase by several dollars.

“It’s good in that consumer safety is a high priority,” Mr. Tapiero said.

“However, if people want to produce their own medicine in small quantities, that’s not unreasonable.”